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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Zonked on August 12, 2011, at 10:29:27
Wow. I got babble to pull up on my phone today, hadn't been working. Well, due to pedr's recent post I have some questions. It's been proposed that this med "adjusts" DA depending on whether more or less DA is needed. Excuse me, but how does a molecule "know" whether to do this? The other thing that worries me is akathisia. Those of you who've been on it awhile, did you get any weird side effects? I can't claim to have had akathisia... but effexor made it impossible for me to stop moving and it did feel like internal torture. I woke up feeling okay this morning and it's mostly stuck so far. I have had a bipolar 2 dx before but it's been changed back to MDD. I am more scared of mood stabilizers than Abilify at this point. Lithium and depakote made me robotic. Allergic to laoictal which once alone brought me out of a nasty depression. That may be false though, I had a very low platelet count due perhaps to parnate. I have a working computer at home now, just need to get net service. My posts will make more sense then - typing on a wap browser is frustrating. Anyway, I have not seen brain volume shrinkage with A like others in its class though that may be that it's never been studied. Thanks for the collective wisdom, folks.
Posted by Christ_empowered on August 12, 2011, at 13:12:29
In reply to Abilify: many questions, posted by Zonked on August 12, 2011, at 10:29:27
Abiify never gave me akathisia. I did get akathisia on low doses of other atypicals, though. Abilify also never struck me as particularly stimulating; I could think a bit more clearly, but its definitely a tranquilizer.
I was on 30, now I'm taking 15. I had a mild stiff gait for a while; that went away once I started taking lots of supplements. Maybe its the antioxidants, maybe its a placebo effect, maybe my body adjusted to the Abilify. I don't know.
When I was younger, higher doses gave me a tremor. This is relatively uncommon, and part of it may have been that I was still a teenager, and teenagers are more sensitive to EPS than adults. I was also neuroleptic-naive, and patients who haven't been treated with neuroleptics before tend to show more side-effects, even at lower doses.
Supposedly, the higher you go the less akathisia you have. That's what my ex-shrink said. Doesn't sound like the greatest idea to me, but it would explain why the Abilify people recommended (and I think still recommend) 15mgs/day as the starting and target dose; that extra 5mgs over the 10mgs dose (which has been shown effective in studies) might calm people down a little bit, reducing start up agitation and perhaps akathisia.
From what I've read, some of the "akathisia" that people get on low dose Abilify is start up agitation/stimulation. Benzos can help.
I don't know about brain shrinkage, but rats exposed to Abilify have less D2 upregulation that those exposed to Haloperidol. Zyprexa, from what I've read, causes about the same amount of D2 upregulation as standard dose haldol.
Posted by Phillipa on August 12, 2011, at 13:24:45
In reply to Re: Abilify: many questions, posted by Christ_empowered on August 12, 2011, at 13:12:29
Seriously less akathesia the higher the dose? Doesn't make sense. But benzos only a paradoxical akathesia. Phillipa
Posted by Christ_empowered on August 12, 2011, at 13:56:59
In reply to Re: Abilify: many questions » Christ_empowered, posted by Phillipa on August 12, 2011, at 13:24:45
yeah, I don't know about that. I think she may have just been trying to get me to take a higher dose.
This is the end of the thread.
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